With Harden you will now have to make him come off the ball, Charles said this experiment will only work with Russell being a catch and shoot shooting Guard. How exactly will that work?, if DA Only wants 3's. I think you move Harden at the 3, and play Gordon at the 2. Westbrook will be the Ball handler Point, let him drive to the basket like he did in okc, and shoot 2's. He should bring the ball up, look to run PnR's With Capela, try to look for James or Gordon at the wings for open 3's and drive to the lane for open layup's, or do his fakes for 2's. Let Harden come out, and then let him iso for the same, let harden rest more. Then sub him out for Harden in the 2nd Quarter, let harden do his thing while hes out. Let Russ do his thing when Harden out. You can run this again and repeat. But Harden going to PG while hes out is idea. If MDA, can find a way to always have 1 of WB, OR JH on the court at all times would be way to keep leads. Should be neat to see how MDA handles this, i just hope he doesnt Hinder WB, because WB is a triple double waiting to happen, and want this, but you also want Harden doing his game as well.. Then you role players need to step up, and if Either WB, or JH cant get rolling you need EG , Cap, or Tucker to do something. Should be a really good team. How would you Use Russell Westbrook?
When Westbrook and Harden are in the game, Westbrook should absolutely be the primary ballhandler. But, Harden has to buy in, into moving off-ball and setting himself up for a good shot when Westbrook drives. Westbrook and whoever the 4/5 is, should always be looking for a PnR. At the very worst, Westbrook gets a big on him who he can just blow by on a dribble drive. Penetrating in would collapse the defense. I think MDA should plan on having Westbrook play the first 6 minutes of the 1st quarter and let him sit for the remainder of the quarter while Harden plays all 12 minutes. Then, for the 2nd quarter, Harden sits out the first 6 minutes while Westbrook subs in to take his place. Basically the same system that we saw with managing CP3's minutes.
I don't know if MDA is the right coach to make 2 extremely ball dominant players work. James was just standing around when Chris was handling the ball and i fear it will be exactly the same with westbrook. They need to run some plays to get Westbrook some alley-oops. Use harden's lob ability with Westbrooks explosiveness. Use westbrooks driving ability to give Harden open looks. overall i THINK it CAN work, but with the way MDA handled CP3,James together, I'm not sure if he's the right coach to handle WB and James together.
Both have to be more active cutters without the ball. The way they played when they were in OKC as team mates.
2 offensive approaches fused. #1 - Westbrook rebound or outlet reception -- 7 seconds or less approach. Option 1 being Westbrook FGA at the rim Option 2 - Westbrook penetration-pass outside to someone off the secondary break setting for a 3 (Ariza used to kill doing this off John Wall fastbreaks, EGO should be able flourish here) Option 3 - no FGA after initial probing, initiate offense #2. #2 - Harden does his thing - 35 feet out with space or Capela PnR, etc (the stuff we've seen for 3 years)... Need to minimize - Tucker shots at rim. Westbrook + Harden turnover total (it's going to be record break, that's my fear). Westbrook shots from 3 (if he shoots 5+ of these he's hurting you). Westbrook standing around when Harden has the ball. Harden standing around when Westbrook has the ball. Need to make sure players (not just Capela) run with Westbrook when he's off to the races. If Westbrook cant get us into the top 2-3 in fast break points and pace then it will end badly when Harden is on the court due to spacing. Opponents will gameplan to let him shoot the 3 and he'll miss. I honestly cant tell if D'antoni is excited or nauseous. But usage-wise, if the easy bucket isn't there for the Tasmanian Devil with the constant sour face and bad fashion sense, you HAVE to get the ball into the hands of the most efficient player in the league, not the least efficient one. No-brainer.
